What it Says in the Castlebar and Mayo Papers

May 2nd, 2001

Connaught Telegraph

The Mayo News

The Western People

£40m. Mayo project is sanctioned The Connaught Telegraph this week.

A £40 million business park, hotel and housing development earmarked for Castlebar has been given the go-ahead. Mayo County Council granted planning permission to Saleen Developments Limited for the major project on an 88-acre site adjacent to Saleen Lake off the Ballinrobe Road in the town. The development, which includes a 108-bedroom hotel with integrated function area, bar and dining facilities and leisure centre with an 18m pool, is expected to create in the region of six hundred jobs in the county town. Six detached buildings with a gross area of c. 3,000 m2 each will be constructed over two storeys to form a business park. The park will accommodate commercial, technology and service sector users. Eighty detached two storey houses are also planned and the total development will include the construction of all new access roads, recycling collection points, foul drainage connection to the main sewer and the construction of a sub-station to ESB requirements. The plan involves the protection of existing woodland and known areas of archaeological and historical interest. Work on the project is scheduled to get underway before the end of the year.

Fears over treatment plant allayed by officials The Connaught Telegraph this week.

Officials of Castlebar Urban Council have moved to allay fears over the sewage treatment plant at Turlough Road in the town. Mr John Condon, town clerk, said misinformation had been sent out about the facility and the true facts needed to be put on the record. In a statement issued at a meeting of the authority he stated: "The effluent being discharged into the town river from the plant is of extremely high standard and is over and above the limits we have to maintain to meet national and EU regulations. Sludge processed at the unit from other treatment plants in the county is not discharged into the river. The fact that there is sludge in the first place ensures that such waste does not find its way into the river. At the Castlebar sewage treatment plant we are attaining the highest standards that we have to attain." Mr Condon said that the environmental impact statement in respect of the new plant had been submitted to An Bord Pleanala and a decision would be made in due course. "We need to double the capacity of what we can treat. If we don't there will be a major barrier to the future development of Castlebar."

Demand for task force to campaign for jobs The Connaught Telegraph this week.

A demand has been made for the establishment of a task force in Castlebar to campaign for the establishment of new jobs in the town. It comes in the wake of 146 workers being temporarily laid off from the Volex plant at Breaffy Road. Speaking on an emergency motion at a meeting of the local Urban Council calling on the Government, An Taoiseach and An Tanaiste to immediately find replacement jobs at Volex, Mr. Blackie Gavin said that there was a need for a concerted effort to promote the town as a high technology centre. The Fianna Fáil member stated "The Government has let us down. The IDA has let us down. It's time we did something for ourselves. Breaffy Road is the hub of Castlebar's industrial zone. We are indebted to the companies operating there and it is important we maintain a link with the head offices of each of the companies." Mr. Johnny Mee who tabled the motion along with his party colleague Mr. Michael Kilcoyne said that there was great tragedy behind the loss of the 146 jobs at Volex in Castlebar. Mr. Mee said a number of jobs had been provided in Castlebar in recent years but the bulk of the jobs had been sanctioned for Dublin, along the east coast and in Cork. "The so-called special status for the border, midland and western areas has not so far provided one additional job in Mayo. This is referred to as the BMW, but it is more like a Henry Ford's Model T, so slow is the pace of progress". He said members of the Government in Mayo were not sufficiently highlighting the need for additional jobs in the county. They should be hammering home the point that the people of the county had got a rotten deal.

Mayo fit to be kings Mayo..0-13 Galway..0-12 The Mayo News this week.

The past is now a foreign place. Thirty-one long barren years without a national title has come to a shuddering halt. For those who have toiled without success in the interim, there is now some reward. The county will celebrate this victory as one, yet there is a sense of unfinished business, that this National Football League title merely lays the foundation for summer days. But Mayo football will never be the same again. That is the certain thing. Last Sunday's heroic one point victory at Croke Park can be contributed to an amalgam of factors, all of which are honed in Tourmakeady on long dark winter nights. Fitness, courage, determination and sheer will to win have always been qualities associated with Mayo in the recent past but have never been sufficient to carry them to victory. There has always been something missing. That something was discovered last Sunday in the final, dramatic moments when Marty McNicholas swung over the winner in the 67th minute. It was the first time Mayo had led for the entire afternoon and they stayed there resolutely. Sheer desire underpinned every moment of the hectic finish.

Westport Chamber disappointed by 'broadband' exclusion The Mayo News.

Westport Chamber of Commerce has written to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs. Mary O'Rourke, expressing strong disappointment over the town's non-inclusion in thirteen projects selected for the extension of broadband communications facilities in the Border, Midlands and Western region. "We never seem to get anything on merit and we are forced to launch campaign after campaign to compel the powers that be to give us our entitlements," said Chamber President Dr. Oliver Whyte. He said that he was also disappointed at the lack of action by Mayo's T.D.s to put Westport's case forward for inclusion. The Chamber has now called on Minister O'Rourke to ensure that Westport will be targeted for inclusion in the next round of proposals for Broadband communications funding.

Road chief dashes hope for N5 The Mayo News this week.

Despite the campaign of the Western Roads Action Committee, all hopes of an improvement to motorway standard of the controversial N5 route from Dublin to Westport have been dashed by the chief executive of the National Roads Authority, Mr. Michael Tobin. In an uncompromising statement of N.R.A. policy over the coming five years, Mr. Tobin says that while £4.7 billion will be spent on national roads improvement over the period 2000-2006, the Dublin-Mayo route is not a priority. Mr. Tobin told the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland that the N.R.A. had been set the task of improving five major inter-urban routes by the end of 2006. They are the routes between Dublin and Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford and the M1 to the border with Northern Ireland.

New planning application for gas terminal The Western People this week.

Enterprise Energy Ireland (EEI) together with its partners, Statoil Exploration Ireland Ltd. and Marathon Petroleum (Hibernia) Ltd., have announced that they are submitting a new planning application to Mayo County Council in respect of the proposed gas terminal at Bellanaboy Bridge. The news that the company is proposing to move the location of the gas terminal comes following an intensive round of consultations during which some local people voiced concerns over the possible environmental impact the gas terminal might have on the area. EEI says it has taken the decision following a full technical re-evaluation of the terminal including an extensive public consultation process and discussions with Mayo County Council and the prescribed bodies.

Ballina web site to fight job losses The Western People this Tuesday.

Ballina launched a big fight back against job losses - and lack of investment in infrastructure and services - on Monday when the management and staff of an industry doomed to close in coming months launched their own website. The Henniges Elastomers management and staff decided not to lie down under the bombshell news that their factory is to close and, instead, chose the best available technology to tell their message and that of Ballina and its hinterland to the World. Michael O'Donnell General Manager of the multi-award winning industry that was set up in 1989 to make component parts for the automotive industry, said that when news that the industry was to close by about September came "we decided we would not let our heads hang and that we would stage a fight back. This is the fight back. We want to bring jobs to Ballina and this area. This is the sole objective of this website - www.mayoindustry.com."

Star of Riverdance Marries in Mayo The Western People this week.

Former Riverdance sensation Jean Butler came back to the county of her roots for her wedding to designer Cuan Hanley last week. They tied the knot in historic Ballintubber Abbey and among the guests was Jean's grandmother, Mae Byrne from Ballyhaunis, who celebrated her 95th birthday a month earlier. Jean's mother Joesphine, had emigrated to the US where she met her husband Michael. Beaming in a cream full-length gown the bride was given away by her father Michael, after arriving one hour late for the ceremony which was attended by many VIP guests, including her former Riverdance and Dancing on Dangerous Ground partner, Colin Dunne. Later the party travelled to beautiful Belleek Castle in Ballina for the reception.

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